Did the ‘Scandal’ Torture Scene, Disrespect Sandy Hook Victims?: The Parents Television Council has charged the popular show Scandal of being overly violent and yet all it depicted was interrogation tactics used by the C.I.A and approved by the American government at one time. It’s interesting they chose the show with the Black female lead and ignored others that were equally as violent in the same week.

You’d think that a post like the one above about feeling unable to deal with homophobia wouldn’t have led to responses from homophobes. You’d be wrong. A couple of days later, I can’t but respond to A Terribly Polite Homophobe.

Just read Atheism and Religion: it’s all in the axioms – excellent article. I’m neither atheist nor a follower of a particular religion, and it’s eyeroll stuff when people want to lump everyone into such narrow categories based on one element of their beliefs (or disbeliefs, if you prefer).

And yep, it really is. I especially dislike it, though, when people who claim to be sceptics do it. If you’re going to claim an identity based on rigorous intellectual honesty, the very least you could do is, y’know, try being rigorous in your intellectual honesty even when it doesn’t suit you. Sigh.

Sharing Lives: What Stories Are Ours to Tell?- An article in The Atlantic claims that “mommy bloggers” (like me) are exploiting our children by sharing stories that aren’t ours to tell. Do we have any stories that are our own?

The Good Men Project requested permission to republish Meet The Predators, the first of my posts popularizing the “predator theory” research by Lisak and McWhorter. My answer was No, You May Not.

Also the Bagley case ended, with Edward Bagley pleading guilty and agreeing to a 20-year sentence, of which he’ll serve at least 17. I first wrote about this case, where someone claiming to be engaged in a BDSM “master/slave” relationship actually groomed and abused a mentally handicapped minor, in Not What We Do.

I lost my temper with Rush Limbaugh and only wish I could do it in person.

And I posted about writing:
talking about diversity–and lack thereof–in my books, and noticing I have a tendency to treat all scondary characters, PoC or not, as wallpaper to my main characters’ world. I need to work on this.

This post is not by me but I think everyone possible should read it. It is a guide to supporting victim/survivors of rape, written by a survivor herself. It contains practical advice as well as explanations of why there is no standard response by victims of sexual assault.

In 50 years, cervical cancer deaths fell by 70% in the United States, transforming it from a top killer to a largely preventable disease. Despite this, you might hear some claims about the Pap test’s accuracy.

Also, Roe v. Wade turns 40 next Tuesday. It’s been slowly eroded over the past four decades, but we can reclaim our lost ground. Let’s take the 2012 election — and the resounding defeat of so many of the foot soldiers in the “War Against Women” — as our chance to keep building the momentum as we move forward, rebuilding Roe in the process.

Only one new entry in Fromage this week, and it’s personal. Probably for cat lovers only. After almost 10 beautiful years, we had to let our fur baby go Thursday before last. I’d do anything to hear you purr is a tribute to her.

Obscenity Laws And Erotica – Even in the fetish communities, or erotica publishers, or places where people with kinks congregate, you will always stumble upon someone who will be absolutely disgusted at your kink or fetish or erotica and wish to publicly and loudly deride it.

Girls Are Sluts – Male privilege is something that men can get by virtue of being male, such as a higher starting salary offer out of college. Other times, however, it can be something negative that they avoid getting by virtue of not being female. One of those instances is being judged for sexual proclivities from a young age.

i am officially 43 min. late for the official self-promotion day…i’m never on time for anything anymore.

This week I posted talking rape with boys: can we beat back rape culture? . After hearing the news of the alleged gang rape in Steubenville, OH, I felt I needed to talk to my 15 yr old son about the rape culture that shrouds college campuses especially. If we want to change the situation, we need to work on our sons to help them push back against a culture that tells them rape is ok.

(And do you know what? I’m a white cis non-disabled woman who did have the resources to go to university. I’m only sitting on the tip of what is a very large and scary iceberg here, and still it freezes me through to the bone sometimes.)

Here is the thing though: no matter who you are — female, LGBTQ+, person with disabilities, PoC, neurodiverse, working class — you have a history too.

On re-reading the above, I should clarify: the Atheist Census people are just collecting data. The arsehats are misusing that data all on their own, and do not appear to be associated with the Atheist Census people at all.

This week I reviewed S.M. Stirling’s A Taint in the Blood. It does a decent job on the vampiric power set, but I was Not Amused at the way the book minimizes the trauma of rape and abuse to make for a more dramatic rescue sequence.

I also polished up Something from the Nightside (popcorn urban fantasy) and Kris Longknife: Mutineer to put up on Amazon and Goodreads– it’s interesting to go back and see what I still remember writing most vividly, since I’m still annoyed that a premise like “debutante in space joins the Navy” wound up falling so flat.

An excerpt: “This is part of the problem though, isn’t it? It seems so innocent and sweet, to tease about babies dating… And haven’t I been tempted to do the same thing with some of the New York mamas with some seriously sweet and adorable baby boys? But I abstain, because what I said to my mom is absolutely true: I don’t know if Felicity will be interested in men or women when she grows up. I don’t know if she’ll decide she wants to identify as a female. For all I know, she may resent the fact that she has such a feminine name and go by Brian instead (her middle name, which I’m suddenly convinced we wrote out as ‘Brain’ on her birth certificate), and decide to have her breasts removed. I do know that whoever and whatever she chooses to identify as, I want to support her completely. I never want her to feel any shame about who she is, what she feels, or what she wants. I don’t want to assume anything about her that will cause her harm, or the harm of others.”